Letter 152: Macedonius asks Augustine about episcopal intercession for criminal defendants.

To Augustine, deservedly venerable lord and uniquely honored father: Macedonius. I received the much-desired letter of Your Holiness through Bonifacius, minister of the venerable law. I welcomed him all the more gladly because he brought me the things I had wanted: the words and good health of Your Holiness, deservedly venerable lord and uniquely honored father. So he obtained without delay what he was asking for. But since an opportunity now exists, I do not want the little concession I granted after being reminded to remain without reward. I want to receive something that will lend to me without loss to the one who lends, or rather that will lend to me with glory for the one who pays out. You say it is the duty of your priesthood to intervene for the accused, and that if you do not obtain what you ask, you are offended, as though you had failed to receive what belongs to your office. Here I am deeply unsure whether this descends from religion. If sins are forbidden by the Lord so strictly that after the first repentance no second opportunity is granted, how can we contend, on religious grounds, that whatever crime someone has committed should be forgiven? When we want it to go unpunished, we are surely approving it. And if it is agreed that the one who approves is held no less than the one who does the wrong, then it is certain that we are bound in partnership with guilt whenever we want a guilty person to go unpunished. Something heavier is added to this. All sins seem more pardonable when the accused person promises amendment. But now, as our morals stand, people want the penalty for the crime relaxed, and they also want to keep the thing for which the crime was committed. Your priesthood thinks we should intervene even for such people, for whom there is so little hope of the future that the same logic of crime continues in the present. The person who clings so stubbornly to the thing for which he committed the crime shows that, once he has the chance, he will do similar things again. For these reasons I consult your prudence, and I want to be released from this uncertainty under which I labor. Do not think I have consulted you for any other reason. Otherwise my intention is this: to thank intercessors, especially those of such merit as you. Many things that I do not want to seem to do on my own, lest a relaxation of severity arm others for crime, I prefer to relax because good intercessors ask it. In that way what I willingly grant may seem to have been granted by another person's merit, while the severity of judgment remains intact. You promised me some of the writings of Your Holiness, and I have not received them. Please send them now at least, and answer this letter of mine, so that since I am not yet allowed to see Your Holiness, I may at least be nourished by your words. May eternal divinity protect Your Holiness in safety for a very long life, deservedly venerable lord and truly honored father.

EPISTOLA 152 Scripta circa a. 413/14. Macedonius Augustino scribit se recepisse eius optatas litteras per Bonifacium, cuius desiderata expleverat (n. 1), quaeritque num ex religione sit quod episcopi apud iudices intercedant pro reis (n. 2), orans ut sibi responsum scriptaque promissa mittat (n. 3). DOMINO MERITO VENERABILI, ET UNICE COLENDO PATRI AUGUSTINO, MACEDONIUS Bonifaci petitioni satisfactum esse. 1. Optatas admodum Sanctitatis tuae litteras accepi per Bonifacium venerandae legis antistitem; quem eo magis receptum dilexi quod a me desiderata pertulerat, sermonem Sanctitatis tuae et incolumitatem, domine merito venerabilis, et unice colende pater. Itaque sine mora quod petebat obtinuit. Verum quoniam existit occasio, hoc ipsum quantulumcumque est quod admonitus indulsi, nolo sine mercede remanere. Cupio enim accipere eam quae mihi commodet sine pendentis incommodo, imo quae mihi commodet cum gloria dependentis. Num ex religione sit pro reis intercedere 2. Officium sacerdotii vestri esse dicitis intervenire pro reis, et nisi obtineatis, offendi, quasi quod erat officii vestri minime reportetis. Hic ego vehementer ambigo utrum istud ex religione descendat. Nam si a Domino peccata adeo prohibentur, ut ne poenitendi quidem copia post primam tribuatur; quemadmodum nos possumus ex religione contendere ut nobis qualecumque illud crimen fuerit, dimittatur? quod utique, cum impunitum volumus, probamus. Et si constat non minus auctorem quam probatorem teneri in omnibus quae peccantur, certum est nos culpae societate vinciri, quoties eum impunitum esse cupimus, qui culpae tenetur obnoxius. Tum praeterea accedit hoc quod gravius est. Nam omnia peccata videntur veniabiliora, cum is qui reus est correctionem promittit: verum nunc, ut mores nostri sunt, et sceleris poenam cupiunt homines sibi relaxari, et id propter quod scelus admissum est, possidere. Pro his quoque interveniendum putat sacerdotium vestrum, de quibus adeo futuri nulla spes est, ut etiam in praesenti eadem criminis ratio perseveret. Nam qui tam pervicaciter tenet propter quae crimen admisit, ostendit se, ubi licentia fuerit, similia peccaturum. Petit ab Augustino scripta promissa. 3. Ob haec igitur consulo prudentiam tuam, et me hoc ambiguo quo laboro, absolvi desidero: nec ob aliam causam consultum te putes. Caeterum hoc mihi propositum est, ut intercessoribus, praesertim talis meriti qualis tu es, etiam gratiam agam. Pleraque enim quae sponte facere videri nolo, ne remissio severitatis alios armet in crimina, opto bonis intercessoribus relaxare, ut quod libens concedo, salva severitate iudicii, alterius merito videatur indultum. De scriptis Sanctitatis tuae aliqua mihi promiseras, et non accepi; quaeso ut vel nunc mittas, et ad hanc meam epistolam respondeas, ut quia Sanctitatem tuam interim videre non datur, saltem sermonibus tuis pascar. Incolumem Sanctitatem tuam divinitas aeterna tueatur aevo largissimo, domine merito venerabilis, et vere colende pater.